Office + Windows in 1 Business-Friendly Subscription

Earlier this week, Microsoft introduced two additional subscriptions subscriptions to partners that will try to sell them.

The couple is participating in an increasing number of subscription agreements, such as Redmond, Wash. The company has modeled on the Office 365 pattern. The new plans even contain the "365" mark, which Microsoft sees as a collective identifier.

Microsoft 365 is as CEO Satya Nadella introduced Monday "A fundamental departure in how we think about product formation" Composed of, at least at least two plans. The more expensive, the Microsoft 365 Enterprise, is simply a new name for an annual, two-piece product called "Secure Productive Enterprise E3" and "Secure Productive Enterprise E5." These SKUs (inventory units) were introduced to Microsoft's 2016 party conference. Like SPE, the M365 Enterprise throws Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security into a bucket.

But "Microsoft 365 Business" or M365 Business for Cards is the more interesting of the two plans because it is actually new. Nadella thought the same. "I'm so excited about the product innovation you want to see today about small and medium-sized businesses," he said during a two-hour keynote before partners.

So what is Microsoft 365 Business? It's the new deal Microsoft will push later this year after an unspecified time in preview, starting August 2nd.

Windows 10 Business: According to Microsoft, "Windows 10 Business is a set of cloud [based] services and device management features that complement Windows 10 Pro, enabling Microsoft's centralized management and security 365 Business. "The services and tools include a subset of them from Intune, Microsoft's enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform and Windows AutoPilot, an automated deployment service bundled with Windows 10's March 2017 feature upgrade, aka 1703 and Creators Update .

How much does M365 Business cost? $ 20 per User per. Month when launched later this year.

It is $ 7.50 per. User per. Month more than Office 365 Business Premium, or an additional $ 90 per Uses annually. For that amount, customers receive the difference between the two plans: Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and the various management components.

Who is Microsoft 365 Business for? According to Microsoft Plan, "is built for small and medium-sized customers with little or no IT resources on the employees."

Although companies of any size can purchase M365 Business licenses, a customer can not buy more than 300 subscriptions, another signal that it targets small and medium sized organizations.

The limited management tools also play the topic in question. They are designed to be easy to use and offer only basic functionality and are available through simple control panels, which they may have already used for Office 365.

What is Windows 10 about upgrading to M365 Business? Good question.

Microsoft's descriptions of this component have been outlined so far. A comprehensive Company Q & A on the subscription plan had the most information and said: "If you have devices licensed for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Professional, Microsoft 365 Business delivers an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro." (The "Professional" tag contains Windows 7, but 8 and 8.1 are called "Pro" instead, as it is Windows 10.)

Computerworld could not upgrade further details about the upgrade , Specifically, what happens when a customer cancels a M365 Business subscription or leaves an expiration. Do devices upgraded from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Pro, the last license? Or is Windows 10 license revoked and forces customers to reinstall the previous operating system?

Microsoft refused to answer questions about this scenario, and analysts who had been informed by the company said that license issues were not discussed in Microsoft's presentation.

The issue of expired subscription requires coherence. When customers leave a subscription, Office 365 says that applications and services generally retreat to a state of reduced functionality or stop working completely. Something similar happens after a subscription to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 lapse. "When a subscription license expires … the Windows 10 Enterprise device will steplessly return to Windows 10 Pro," Microsoft says in a support document .

In other cases, Microsoft does not & # 39; T remove an upgrade. Customers who have subscribed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 can upgrade devices equipped with Windows 7 Professional or 8.1 Pro, for Windows 10 Pro; If they later leave the E3 or E5 plan, [10459015] remains the Windows 10 license permanently .

Which of these options remains – cancellation or storage – is unclear in case of M365 Business.

Which management tools include M365 Business? Enough, Microsoft says, to adequately serve small and medium-sized businesses.

Automatically update and upgrade Windows 10-pcs using Windows Update for Business

We have heard that there is an example of M365 Business. What is the deal? Yes, there will be a preview available from Microsoft, said Wednesday, August 2nd. Preview will be available from this website . Users can actually sign up for preview on that page.

Although there is no charge for preview, Microsoft recommended that potential customers contact their preferred Microsoft Partner – or find one . Interestingly, Microsoft said that "Devices running Windows 7 [Professional] or 8.1 Pro are eligible for upgrading to Windows 10 Pro in Microsoft 365 Business Preview." It was unclear whether this upgrade would be retained or retracted at the end of the preview.

What does M365 Business require? According to Microsoft, Windows 7 Professional PCs are "probably the minimum requirements." However, only Windows 10 devices can be managed in M365 Business, a powerful motivator to equip as many systems as possible with the newer OS.

The second important prerequisite for the subscription – Azure Active Directory (AAD) – is required to enforce user and device policies set in the Admin console and for other tasks, such as. AutoPilot setup. Microsoft acknowledged that Active Directory works locally with M365 Business, but "it is not recommended."